lletuga

Forms

lletuga f (plural lletugues)^[1] Old Catalan wrote laytuga, letuga, leytuga and letugua.^[2][3] The DCVB records the pronunciations ʎətúɣə, ʎetúɣa, ʎetɾúɣɛ, ʎetɾúɣa, ʎəјtúɣə, ʎetúa, ʎentúɣa and ʎantúɣa.^[4] Coromines heard letúa at Sella in Valencia (1964) and lleituga in the Alt Pallars, and llentuga at Tortosa and Castelló owes its /n/ to llentia.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin lactūca (“lettuce”).^[2][4][5][1] The Latin word is derived from lac (“milk”) with an adjective suffix -ūcus;^[6] Varro and Pliny already explained the name by the milky juice of the plant.^[2][6] Celsus says that the stalk is full of milk in summer.^[2]

The same Latin word is Italian lattuga, French laitue, Occitan lachuga, Spanish lechuga and Romanian lăptucă.^[7][1] Coromines notes that the change of Latin /kt/ to /tʃ/ seen in the Occitan form belongs to Provence and eastern Languedoc and is foreign to Catalan.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, from the end of the 13th century, is in the Roussillon Vides de sants, where hermits ate wild bitter lettuces (menyaven laytuges salvatges e amargoses).^[2] Bruguera and the GDLC also date the word to the 13th century, from the Vides.^[8][5]

Semantic evolution

The medieval texts use the word for the garden plant and its seed: a spice dealer's inventory at Cervera (1373) lists a sack of lettuce seed, a medical recipe book gives lettuce seed with woman's milk as a sleeping draught, and Vicent Ferrer says that the paschal lamb was to be eaten with bitter wild lettuce.^[3]

Labèrnia (1839) and Fabra (1932) define it as a kind of, or simply as, enciam.^[9][10] Coromines found it used in 1932 at El Prat de Llobregat for each single head of lettuce, while in the Alt Pallars enciam de lleituga was one of two kinds of lettuce.^[2] The DIEC2 adds lletuga de mar, the sea lettuce.^[11]

Timeline

• Late 13th century – laytuges in the Vides de sants of Roussillon.^[2]
• 1373 – lettuce seed (laor de leytugues) in a spice dealer's inventory at Cervera.^[3]
• 1401 – letuga in the Recull d'eximplis.^[3]
• 1839 – Labèrnia's dictionary defines lletuga as a kind of lettuce.^[9]
• 1932 – Fabra's dictionary refers lletuga to enciam.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. lettuce, the garden plant Lactuca sativa and its leaves eaten as salad; enciam.^[11][4][1]
2. lletuga de mar: sea lettuce, an edible green seaweed of the genus Ulva.^[11]

Related words

• enciam
• llet
• Latin lactūca
• Spanish lechuga
• French laitue

Usage notes

The DEIEC gives lletuga as the word of Valencian, Balearic, Alguerès, Northern Catalan and the far north of North-Western Catalan; elsewhere the usual word is enciam.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 5, 172
3. ^ a b c d Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. lletuga
4. ^ a b c Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. lletuga
5. ^ a b Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. lletuga
6. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4833
8. ^ Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 541
9. ^ a b Labèrnia, Pere (1839–1840), Diccionari de la llengua catalana ab la correspondencia castellana y llatina, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. lletuga
10. ^ a b Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. lletuga
11. ^ a b c Institut d'Estudis Catalans (2007), Diccionari de la llengua catalana, 2nd ed. (DIEC2), Barcelona: Edicions 62; online edition with later updates, https://dlc.iec.cat, p. s.v. lletuga
12. ^ Institut d'Estudis Catalans, Diccionari essencial de la llengua catalana (DEIEC), online, https://deiec.iec.cat, p. s.v. lletuga